Stock markets end turbulent week with more losses

Major European stock share markets closed down on Friday, ending another turbulent week.

Continued threat about a slowdown in the global economy and high levels of debt burden in the eurozone had driven indexes down for much of the day.

At one point, European markets were rapidly lower, with down of more than 3% for some leading indexes.

At the end, London's FTSE 100 was lower 1%, Paris's Cac was lower 1.9% and Frankfurt's Dax was fall 2.2%.

The losses leave the 100 index down 13% on the month, with the French and German markets worse hit, losing 18.3% and 24% respectively.

In New York, share market was down 0.2%. Alan Brown, Schroders' group chief investment officer, said: "It is the end of a really torrid week."

Investors are worried global growth is slowing, and that major economies may be heading back into recession.

In addition, the Greek finance minister tried to reassure investors that his country's new bailout deal was not in doubt.

Evangelos Venizelos' comments came after four countries demanded collateral in exchange for their contributions to the 109bn-euro (£95bn) loan, after Finland deal with the Greek government.

Austria, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Slovakia have all said they want to do the same, which could complicate efforts to finalise the rescue deal.

Share markets rise in volatile trading

US and European shares have both close in upward trend, but there is fear continue over eurozone debt.

Wall Street's main Dow Jones index was risen 3.3% in early afternoon trading on Wall Street, helped by data showing a fall in the unemployment claimants.

In Europe, indexes closed positive after French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said they would meet to discuss eurozone financial governance.

The UK's FTSE 100 closed positive 3.1%.

Germany's Dax added 3.3% and France's Cac also close positive 2.5%.

A statement from President Sarkozy's office said he and Ms Merkel would also discuss "other international issues".

French banking sector shares had started Thursday among the higest gainers, with Societe Generale shares up 8%. The bank's shares then plunged as far as 8% down on the day, before recovering to finish positive 3% higher.

It comes a day after Societe Generale denied negative speculation about its financial health.

The US unemployment data showed that the weekly number of people claiming benefits had fallen to 395,000, the first time it had dropped below 400,000 since April.

This also lifted the two other main US share indexes, with the Nasdaq up 3.8% and the S&P's 500 adding 3.6%.

'Irrational fears' Mr Sarkozy held emergency talks with senior ministers on Wednesday when France became the centre of market turbulence on rumours that the country was about to lose its AAA credit rating, and the concern about

European shares plunge as sell-off continues

European share values are Continue to fall rapidly, following similar sell-offs in the US and Asia.

London's FTSE 100 index lose 4.1%, Germany's Dax is also drop 5.7% and France's Cac has fallen by 2.4%.

Invester remain on edge after a severe loss of confidence caused by a downgrading of US debt and further strife in the eurozone.

Banking sector share dropped adversely like RBS down 10%, Barclays falling 7.5% and HSBC 6.9% lower.

On the other way the bond markets, the yield on both Spanish and Italian government bonds fell further.

The European Central Bank (ECB) is intervening in the markets to try to keep the cost of borrowing down for the two countries, which are struggling to avoid a Greece-style bail-out by the authorities.

Worries about the level of US debt caused its credit rating to be downgraded from the top triple A grade - a move that lead to severe falls on Monday of between 3%-5% for European share markets and a 5.6% fall for the US Dow Jones index - its biggest in three years, with bank shares leading the way down.

Bank of America closed down 20% in US trading, banking sector hits adversely.

On Tuesday, Asian markets suffered their second day of steep falls, although Asian Markets  had recovered around half of their overnight losses by the close.

The Nikkei finished fall 1.7%, South Korea's Kospi dropped 3.64%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng down 2.8%.

Fear grips global markets again

World stock markets have continuously suffering heavy losses last week in the first day of trading since rating agency Standard & Poor's downgraded the US late on Friday.

The main Wall Street index, the Dow, was down 2.5% due to weak US economy.The UK's FTSE was 2.9% dowm, and Germany's Dax had fall 4.3%.
But yields on Spanish and Italian bonds fell sharply after intervention by the European Central Bank (ECB).
The ECB said it intended to buy up eurozone government bonds to address concerns that the eurozone debt crisis was spreading to those two countries.
The yield on Spanish 10-year bonds is announced - it indicate of the risk cocerned with lending Spain money down from more than 6% to about 5.2%. Yields on Italian bonds fell by a similar amount.
Tobias Blattner, a former economist at the European Central Bank, said the ECB's intervention had done little to help the crisis of confidence boosting up the share markets.
"This reflects the fundamentals that growth is in a very bad situation on both sides of the Atlantic and this is why the ECB's interventions will not alter anything.
"We can't get much positive momentum out of it, but for the bond markets it was a good sign."
Earlier, Asian  stock shares had lose due to the US downgrade.

Japan's Nikkei and Hong Kong's Hang Seng indexes fall 2.2%, while South Korea's Kospi fell 3.8%.

These added to the significant falls seen last week when trillions of dollars were wiped from the value of global markets, with the Dax losing about 13% of its value, the FTSE 100 falling almost 10% and the Dow ending the week 5.8% lower.